Devices for movement of cylindrical articles, for example cans, bottles, and the like, utilizing air jets are well known and have been heretofore suggested and/or utilized (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,500,229, 4,369,005, 3,475,058, 3,684,327, 3,953,076, 3,734,567, and 4,392,760), and such devices have heretofore included air tables, air conveyors and the like having a plurality of such jets positioned in recesses, or depressions, in a surface adjacent the articles to be moved.
While such devices now known have been found to be acceptable for some uses, some such devices have been found to impart excessive velocity to articles such as empty beverage cans thereby causing the articles to overturn, to suffer excessive energy loss at the jet due to friction and/or turbulence in a channel leading to the jet opening, and/or have been unduly complex in production.
For example, such devices have included jets positioned in cavities in a jet plate, with passageways between a plenum and the jet openings being angularly bored through the plate, and/or jet plates having openings defined therethrough so that fluid flow from the jets is at an angle of 45.degree. or less, relative to the jet plate. As may be appreciated, further improvements in such devices may, therefore, still be utilized.